Mitt escalates against Newt in Florida

Mitt Romney said Newt Gingrich is unstable and erratic and that if he were to become the nominee there would be "an October surprise a day" during the general election campaign.

“As you look at the speaker’s record over time it’s been highly erratic," Romney told reporters after meeting in at a Tampa hotel with eight people who lost money in the troubled Florida housing market. "He voted in favor of establishing the Department of Education and yet he gets in a debate and says we should get rid of the Department of Education and send all the education issues back to the states. He’s opposed vehemently to the Massachusetts health care system and yet just a couple of years ago wrote about what a superb system it was. He’s gone from pillar to post almost like a pinball machine, from item to item in a way which is highly erratic and does not suggest a stable, thoughtful course which is normally associated with leadership.”

Romney, who said he is releasing his tax returns Tuesday because that's when his accountant is available — not because President Barack is delivering the State of the Union on the same day — repeated his call for Gingrich to show similar transparency.

"The speaker was very animated about my releasing tax records. I am. I think it’s an appropriate that people should know if there’s going to be an October surprise. And in the case of the speaker, he’s got some records which could represent an October surprise. We could see an October surprise a day from Newt Gingrich. So let’s, let’s see the records from the ethics investigation, let’s see what they show, let’s see who his clients were. At the time he was lobbying Republican congressmen for Medicare Part D, was he working, or were his entities working with any health care companies that could have benefited from that? That could represent not just evidence of lobbying but potentially wrongful activity of some kind.”

Asked to what "wrongful activity" he was referring, Romney did not offer specifics.

"Well, you have to register as a lobbyist, I don't know what the lobbying rules are. We just need to understand what his activity has been over the last 15 years and make sure that it's conformed with all the regulations that might exist and also to underscore the fact that in the view of many of us, being in K Street, working for various corporations, and providing influence in the governmental sector is a form of lobbying. And if he's been lobbying he ought to acknowledge that."

Romney's campaign has a conference call with reporters scheduled for Monday morning in which former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will attack Gingrich's tenure working for Freddie Mac.

UPDATE: Romney drove the same line of attack on Fox News Monday morning, suggesting that Gingrich's consulting and advocacy work may not have been entirely on the level: